The Water Balloon Fight
by Emma zooka
Summary: A series of one-shots involving our favorite Percy Jackson characters in everyday life, and how they deal with it in their own special, demigodly way. Including Percy winning a water balloon fight, a surprise meeting with Nancy Bobofit, and many more.
1. Never Mess With Water Balloons

**This is just a short story that I thought up during school. It really doesn't lead up to anything, meaning no monsters, no other demigods. Nothing.**

**Just felt like I needed to warn you…**

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It was just a regular day in a regular old gym class. Or, at least, as regular as you can get when you're a demigod.

All the popular kids were roaming near the middle of the room, acting like they owned the school. All the jocks were in the corner, flexing their muscles and acting tough. And then, of course, there were us. The rejects. The weirdos. The kids who looked like they had been denied a "proper" childhood when they were little (which in my case, was kinda true), and had just turned out all wrong.

We were the ones trying to be invisible.

Of course, I probably could have taken any of the others on in a wrestling match, or sword fighting, or archery, or, heck, kicking a can around to see how far it went, but Chiron had warned me against showing my talents in a mortal setting. And besides, it was easier to stay unnoticed if people thought you were weak.

Which was exactly why I was hanging out with this group.

Of course, there was one guy in particular who, for some reason, just couldn't bear to ignore me. His name was Jake Adler, and he was the leader of the jock group.

"Hey, Jackson!" he called out; interrupting an interesting conversation me and another kid were having about Greek gods. "I'm gonna crush you later in water dodge ball!", kindly demonstrating exactly how a balloon would smash into my face with his beefy hands.

I rolled my eyes as I turned away. Today was soaking day. It was pretty much the only time of the week in Goode High School that you could go outside for gym, and the day that everyone dreads. You see, some day, somewhere, someone in Goode had decided to make up a game called Water Ball. It was an ugly mixture of dodge ball, capture the flag, and a classic, all out, water balloon fight. Luckily, it was a game that I was actually good at. Being the Son of Poseidon and all, I could actually control the water in the balloons to hit anyone with pinpoint accuracy. Of course, with the Mist (a magical veil that shields mortals from any magical happenings) covering my classmate's eyes, my amazing skill was contributed to dumb luck and bad aim.

How a water balloon hurtling at you with a speed of 40 miles per hour could be considered bad aim, I don't know. Luckily, my friend, not to mention the Oracle of Delphi, Rachel Elizabeth Dare was in my school, so at least _somebody_ would believe me when I explain the real reason my team is suddenly so lucky.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was a mortal who could see through the Mist. We'd met earlier when I nearly killed her at Hover Dam (long story), and somehow, she just happened to be in _my_ school. Rachel did save my butt during orientation though, (let's just say that I'll never look at cheerleaders the same ever again), so we became friends (there's nothing like the threat of being eaten by demented _empousai_ that brings two people together).

So, back to present day, as everybody was warming up for a good game of Water Ball, a balloon suddenly exploded on the back of my head. I spun around as everybody laughed, and saw Jake and his crew smirking at me, holding another water balloon. I resisted taking out Riptide, since pulling out a cheap, drug store pen in this situation probably would escalate me into the Crazy group. And despite what I had said earlier, I still have a reputation to uphold.

So, instead, I growled angrily to myself, and prepared to unleash the full fury of a Percy style water balloon fight onto Jake Adler's meaty head.

Finally, after a long five minute delay (doing who knows what), our coach blew the whistle, and the war began.

Cries of pain and mercy immediately started as soon as team Jake ascended to my side of the playing field. I cursed, only then remembering that my team consisted of all the weak people in the school. I picked up a water balloon that had just rolled my way, and prepared to chuck it to whoever got in my way. Obviously, that person was Jake Adler.

"Hey, freak!" he called out to me, hoisting a watermelon sized balloon up on his shoulders. "Get a load of this!"

I don't know if he was just being stupid, or he was just born this way and I never noticed, but he hurled it toward me. Heck, I didn't even have to use my powers as the Son of the Sea God for it to splatter on the ground right in front of Jake, drenching him in freezing water. He choked and sputtered theatrically, and then glared at me like it was _my_ fault.

Ah well, too bad for him, because I just smiled at my luck, and threw the balloon, willing it to speed up and slam right into Jake's face.

Bull's eye.

Jake cried out, and then toppled over, dragging along two other teammates who had rushed over to defend him.

I grabbed some more balloons from the ground, suddenly caught up in a craze to win, and began flinging them onto the other team, silently willing them to hit the opponents with the force of a speeding hellhound (and believe me, you never want to know what that's like). Pretty soon, every last kid on the other team was lying flat on their butts, blinking out the water from their eyes and looked around dumbly, like they were shocked that they lost.

Everybody from my team, however, was staring at me like I had grown a third eye. I felt the blood drain from my face as I realized what I had done. Smiling weakly, I shrugged.

"Dumb luck?" I offered.

**Hey, hey! You like?**

**Yeah, like I said before in my other stories, don't hesitated to tell me if I'm doing something wrong. It really is helpful.**

**Quick question though. Stories like these are called one-shots, right?  
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**Rate and Review!**

**Καλή de!**


	2. Beware thy Drinking Fountains

Blue. All around me.

That's how my day started out. Stuck at the bottom of the school's pool, hoping that my Oracle friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, to come pull me out.

I guess should probably explain the situation.

Last night, I made a bet with my mortal friend, Robert Ingrend, that I hold my breath underwater for 7 minutes. Being the Son of Poseidon, it was like a walk in the park, mainly due to the fact that I can breathe underwater as easily as I can on land. Of course, though, being the sly, double crossing traitor that Robert Ingrend was, he somehow managed to tell the school bullies, Jake Adler and his crew **(1)**, about our little bet. And so now, I've got five meaty hands holding me underwater, apparently expecting me to drown.

It is only now that I realize how incredibly stupid Mr. Adler and his gang really is. All this, just for some stupid water balloon fight that they lost on their own.

Anyways, knowing that Rachel would probably see I'm in trouble and come to my rescue (she _is_ the Oracle of Delphi after all), I just waited patiently. Sort of.

Two minutes tick by, maybe three. "Is he still alive?" I hear one of the kids holding me down ask. There was a slight quiver in his voice. Jake grunts. "Think so." he mutters. "Come guys. We taught him his lesson."

I felt the hands begin to pull me up. Realizing the opportunity this offered me, I remained as limp as possible, acting as if I really was unconscious.

One of the kids yelped as I came out of the water. "He's still dry!" he cried. I cursed, forgetting about my automatic ability to remain waterless in water. Oh well. They were probably too slow to wonder why anyways.

Opening my eyes, I threw out my fists, aiming at anything in front of me. They connected with full on with separate noses. Howling in pain, the two boys backed up, letting me go to clutch their faces.

Jake growled, and threw himself at me. I dodged easily, the power of the water still within me. With a loud splash, Jake plunged right into the water, dragging the rest of his minions down with him.

I looked out the window as I got up. Thankfully, nobody heard our little spat. I brushed the dust off my shirt, ignored the flailing and shouts from the pool. Picking up my backpack from the corner of the floor, I walk out the door, giving a mocking salute to the dripping wet boys who had managed to get out of the water.

I collided with a nervous Robert the moment I stepped through the door. "Did you get him?" he asked, "Did you…" Robert's words quickly dwindled off the moment he noticed that it was me. Blood immediately rushed to his face as he saw my expression. "P-p-Percy!" he stuttered. "I thought they- I mean, I'm sorry I told them! They made me spill it all!"

I laughed humorlessly. Robert was just about the strongest person I knew. The day he ever spilled the beans was the day that Mr. O'Leary turned evil and Apollo learned how to make up a decent poem. "Sure they did." I said curtly, brushing my way past him to get to class. Robert hurried with me, shamefaced.

"I'm really sorry." he said again after a long minute of mindless following. "I just though…I just thought that you were going out with Jessica."

I froze mid step, shocked. Jessica McRegus was Robert's girlfriend, and just about everybody in the school knew it. I think even the teachers were in on it. Spinning around to stare at him, my mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. "I…go…what….huh?" I choked, sounding just like Grover whenever he's confused.

Robert blushed. "I thought I heard someone say that she was cheating on me." he muttered, "So when I saw her talk to you yesterday, I thought it was _you_."

I finally remember how to close my mouth, just in time to send my best death glare to Robert. He flinched.

"She was telling me how my clothes clashed yesterday." I groaned, not believing that this was all over a girl. A _girl_ for crying out loud! "Not exactly what you call a good relationship starter."

Robert paled so quickly, it was almost comical. "I-uh-I…" he stuttered, unable to get his thoughts out. I smirked.

"Glad this cleared some things up for you man." I said, patting him on the back. He looked down, ashamed.

"So…you're not mad at me anymore?" he whispered tentatively after another long minute of silence, a sliver of hope in his voice. My eyebrows rose.

"Oh no." I said, "That doesn't even begin to cover for what I just went through. You've got a _whole_ lot of making up to do."

Robert shrugged. Finally deciding not to follow me, he stopped by a water fountain to take a quick drink.

I grinned.

After a familiar tug in my gut, the water in the fountain suddenly exploded, and spewed itself at Robert's face. He sputtered, and his head jerked up from the broken pipe work.

I chuckled. He spun around to stare at me, unhinged.

"Yeah." I said, smirking. "_A lot _of making up to do."

**Yeah, I know this isn't my best work. Still, how did you like it?  
**

**In case you didn't know, I'm gonna make this a series of one-shots. **

**(1) If you read my last chapter, you'll know who this guy is**

**Rate and Review!**

**(please)**

**Adios!  
**


	3. I Start My Day Being Chased By A Cop

**This story is set before the Last Olympian. I planned for it to be something out of the way, like my other one-shots…but it didn't work out like that.  
I hope you like it!

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I never really wanted to start my day being chased by a cop. But with being a Son of Poseidon and all…I probably should have known better.

It all started when I decided that I would ride the city bus to school. Usually, I'm more of a subway person. But ever since I realized I was a demigod, everything monster related always seemed to happen underground. So, naturally, I decided to take the bus instead.

I was just about to drop my money in the little box on the side when I heard a deep rumbling noise. My head jerked up instinctively, scanning the vehicle for anything unusual. No fat lady with killer Chihuahuas, no old grandmothers with fiery whips. Could I have imagined it?

Just to be safe, my hand drifted to the pocket where I kept my sword, Riptide. Well, technically, it was a pen. But whenever I uncapped it, it would transform into a lethal, double edged, celestial bronze weapon. Not exactly the thing to go writing Christmas cards with.

Choosing a seat near the back, I stole one more quick glance around the bus. Secretly, I was beginning to really regret not taking the subway as a middle aged man sat next to me a few seconds later when the bus had ran out of seats.

I quickly examined him through my peripheral vision.

He looked like your average business man, with the shiny briefcase and everything. He even had that stubble on his chin from not shaving too often. He almost reminded me of Chiron, with his detached, thousand year old eyes look. For a moment, I wondered if he were a demigod.

I still gripped Riptide even tighter.

Minutes later, the bus that had been driving along smoothly suddenly stopped. I looked at the front. There was nothing on the road. The other passengers immediately began whispering among themselves, wondering what in the Hades was going on.

The man next to me grumbled, muttering unintelligible words that not even Grover with his super goat hearing could understand. I glanced at the emergency exit, weighing my chances of making it out of the bus.

Suddenly, the driver got out of his seat. I was expecting him to start giving out some sort of apology, but instead, he stared straight at _me_. I slowly pulled Riptide out of my pocket, ignoring the incredulous look the person next to me (whom I figured was obviously a mortal) was giving me. The driver began walking up to me, bumping people out of the way with his hairy gloves.

I did a double take.

Those weren't gloves.

They were hands. Big, beefy, hands that could rip apart an apartment complex without even breaking a sweat.

I looked back at the driver's face, who was sneering at me in an odd way. It was if his whole body was enlarging rapidly, taking up more and more space by the second. His eyes were filled with under-worldly menace.

Scratch that. His _eye_.

I cursed in Greek. How had I not seen that the driver was a Cyclops? I glanced back at the passengers, who were staring at the monster expectantly, not noticing anything wrong. I didn't know how well the Mist would shield me if I decided to attack the thing in plain view.

What I did know, however, was that me and the guy sitting next to me was gonna be Cyclops breakfast if I didn't act. Fast.

I looked around frantically for an emergency window, a magic flap, something. There was nothing, besides that door in the back, too far away for me to open.

So I did the next best thing.

I pushed the guy besides me out of his seat. With an indignant "Hey!" he tumbled downwards, hindering the Cyclops for a precious second. I used my extra moment to stand up and uncap Riptide. The Cyclops faltered at the blade's appearance, but then sneered and kept advancing.

"Silly demigod." he chuckled. His voice sounded like a grandpa on steroids. Dry and gravely, but creepy at the same time. "I've bested hundreds of hero's before your time. One puny son of the Sea God won't stop me."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh my gods." I said, sounding braver than really I was. "Why do all you monsters have to have some freakishly large ego?"

The Cyclops snarled. But before any of us could react, the mortal besides me surprised us all. He stood up right between us, and pulled out a leather wallet. Before I could say a word, he flipped it open, revealing a gleaming badge with the New York Police crest on it.

"All right, you two." he said, his voice dripping with caveat. "Break it up before I have to take you in."

I glanced at the Cyclops, who was looking back at me. I figured we both were thinking the same thing.

_How did he get into this?_

"I said break it up!" the man repeated, his other hand reaching into his pockets for what I assumed were handcuffs.

I looked from the man, to the Cyclops, then to the emergency door. That mortal would be in dire danger if he stayed between us for too long.  
Cyclops weren't known for their skills of patience.

Making a quick estimate, I raised both hands in defeat, praying that the Mist wouldn't make Riptide appear as a gun or something. Just as I expected, the police officer looked back at the monster, opening his mouth to say something.

He never got the chance.

Before anybody could react, I quickly elbowed the man in the neck, startling him as he fell toward the equally surprised Cyclops. Using their moment of confusion, I sprinted toward the emergency exit, opening the release lever and jumping out before any of the passengers could say "Holy Zeus!"

"Come back here!" I heard the policeman yell behind me. I put on a burst of speed, not caring where I was going. Before long, I realized I had reached the Hudson River **(1)**. I had no idea how I got there, but either way, the cop was still following me. I need a hiding place.

"Hey, you!" I heard him call. I looked around frantically. There was nowhere to hide. No dark alleyway, no store complex. I had managed to stumble right into one of the calmer parts of New York.

I looked back at the water, my last resort. The filthy waters of the Hudson almost seemed to spew sickly green vapors as it rolled sluggishly around the bank, bits of trash drifting aimlessly around the dock. I looked around one last time for any sort of escape way that I might have missed. There were none.

I swore, looking back at the waters in disgust. Not exactly where you'd want to spend you day swimming, that's for sure. I could hear the footsteps draw nearer, and made my decision. I just hoped that my father's underwater protection also included me not choking on discarded candy wrappers.

As I was jumping, however, my arm was grabbed roughly from behind me. I yelled, falling flat on my butt as I glimpsed the cop from the bus grinning at me. How had he managed to catch up?

The officer wasn't done with his surprises though.

"Good gods." he panted, sitting down beside me as if nothing had happened in the past few minutes. I glared at him queerly.

Gods?

The man took a look at my face and chuckled. "You run fast, Son of Poseidon." he said, still trying to catch his breath. "But Hermes could beat you in a race any day."

It finally dawned on me.

"You?" I said incredulously. "You're a son of Hermes?"

The man smiled. "Drew's the name." Then he caught my expression. "What?" he said innocently, "Do you think all demigods die when they're kids?"

"I…uh…" I couldn't find anything to say. I'd only seen one adult demigod in my lifetime, and he turned out to be a few thousand years old.

I finally settled on glaring at him again. "What's with the badge?" I grumbled. Being chased through half of New York was not a good reason to stay friendly, _especially_ to the guy who was chasing you. He looked down, realizing he had kept his pin fastened to his shirt. He then laughed. "Oh, this?" he said, taking it off his collar. "Nicked it from an annoying cop who saw me holding a stolen video camera." He rolled his eyes. "Served him right."

"Uh huh." I muttered, not really hearing anything as I stared back out into the polluted waters of the Hudson.

Suddenly, Drew stood up, dragging me up by the arm in the process. "Well it was nice meeting you, Perseus Jackson." he said, letting go of me and immediately walking away at the same time. "But I'm afraid I must leave now."I stared after him, still too slow to reply. Finally, my mouth opened to talk, though it didn't feel like I was speaking. "So what do I do now?"

Drew winked. "Go back to school. Forget I was ever here. And don't worry." he added, just as he was about to walk out of my line of site. "You'll do the right thing when the time comes."

Then Drew disappeared around the corner, leaving me with a bunch of jumbled thoughts in my head.

It wasn't until days later that I realized something didn't quite add up.

He had called me Perseus Jackson, and yet I clearly remembered not telling him my full name before. And nobody ever called me Perseus, besides the gods and my mother.

And then there was that last thing he had said to me before he left that still kept me up late in bed at night.

What did he mean when he said I would make the right choice?

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**Do you like it?**

**Yes, I know it isn't my best...again. But I put if off too long (****baaaaddd writers block) so I really wanted to post it.  
**

**(1) I don't even know if this is accurate, but I remember it being in the book. So I just added it in.**

**Reviews are wholeheartedly welcomed!**


	4. Paul Learns Something New About Demigods

When you're a demigod, anything's possible.

For instance, your best friend may just be your everyday satyr, complete with a furry hindquarter and hooves and little baby goat horns. Your other best friend could be the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and arch rival to your own father, Poseidon. Your everyday life might be filled with monsters, gods, and geometry homework. Your school days could be packed with hungry manticores, morphing pens and stale pizza.

But hey? When you're a demigod, it's pretty easy to get use to this stuff.

Obviously though, when you're a mortal, it can come as a _big_ shocker.

I learned this lesson the hard way….unfortunately.

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It was the last day of Camp Half Blood. For me, at least. We half bloods are allowed to stay year round, meaning throughout the whole mortal school year. But like a wise girl once told me, "The real world is where you learn whether you're good enough."

Good enough to survive that is.

I was waiting for my step dad, Paul Blofis to come pick me up, when I saw my friend, Thalia, come through the borders and join me at the bottom of the hill. Thalia was the daughter of Zeus, god of the skies, and the only one who I could say genuinely annoyed me. Most times.

She crossed her arms as she stopped besides me. After joining the Hunters of Artemis, she had gained immortality, so now, for once, I was as old as she was.

"Hey." she said, not bothering to acknowledge my presence.

"Hey." I replied.

A moment of silence. Then Thalia said, "Waiting for Paul to pick you up?"

I nodded. "Yeah." My voice sounded quiet, almost sad, even to me. I saw Thalia grin.

"It still sucks being just a regular half blood, doesn't it?" she taunted, fingering her silvery parka (the official uniform for the Hunters). I rolled my eyes.

"What do you know?" I jibed. "You're still half blood. Just with better life coverage."

Thalia raised her eyebrows. "Life coverage?" she inquired. I frowned.

"You know….immortality." Then, seeing the blank stare she was giving me, I added, shrugging, "You can't die besides in battle. Life coverage."

Thalia rolled her eyes, muttering "Seaweed Brain." under her breath.

I looked at her witheringly. The previous time she'd called me that, it didn't go so well. I ended up nearly being fried to death, and Thalia almost drowned like a dead cat. "You know where that went last time, Pinecone Face." I reminded her.

Her eyes flashed. Then, to my surprise, she smirked. "Good point." she said mischievously. I gulped. "However, we never did get to finish out little tiff after capture the flag."

I snorted. Tiff? Saying our fight was a tiff was like calling Mr. D merely unpleasant.

Largest. Understatement. _Ever_.

"Oh yeah," I said, my hand drifting to my pocket, and gripped my lethal ballpoint sword, Riptide. "I've been itching for a good match since Luke left. Want to finish it?"

Thalia smiled evilly. "I thought you'd never ask."

Before I could react, she slapped her bracelet and pulled out her mace can out at the same time, standing fully armed with a shield and spear before I could even move.

I blinked, then pulled out my pen and uncapped it. It immediately morphed and transformed, leaving a polished, celestial bronze sword in its place. Riptide.

I glanced at her shield Aegis, trying not to shy away from the horrible image of Medusa that was forever etched onto the metal. "No fair." I complained. "You get a shield and I don't?"

Thalia frowned. "Fine." she muttered, and then slapped her wrist again, transforming her shield back into a bracelet. She then took a step back, bending her knees in a combat position. "Ready?" she asked.

I grinned. Without replying, I leaped forward and slashed diagonally, trying to catch her off guard. It didn't work. Almost lazily, she blocked it, and used the opportunity to slam me with the butt of the spear in my stomach. I pulled back, winded, but still managed to block the entourage of attacks Thalia continued with.

We fought for the better part of 5 minutes, neither of us able to gain leverage or unarm each other. I was so concentrated on the fight and not getting skewered that I didn't notice a blue Prius pulling up in the road besides the hill, or heard the slam of the door as the driver got out. What I did notice, however, was that Paul had arrived when he came up behind me and, with a yell, tackled Thalia to the ground.

"What the Hades!" Thalia cried as she tried to push Paul off of her. He refused to budged.

"Stay…away…from….Percy!" he panted as he pushed her away from me for emphasis. Her electric blue eyes flashed.

I finally understood the situation. "Um, Paul?" I said awkwardly, looking pleadingly at Thalia in apology and praying she wouldn't shock him to death. Finally, she harrumphed and stepped away unwillingly. Paul turned to me for an explanation. "This is Thalia. My…friend."

Paul glanced from me, to Thalia, then back to me again. Finally, he flushed. "Oh." he said weakly. I chuckled. Thalia rolled her eyes, clearly muttering "Boys…" underneath her breath.

"Paul, this is Thalia Grace," I introduced again, "Daughter of Zeus, lord of the skies, and lieutenant to the Hunters of Artemis." Thalia smiled halfheartedly, and held out her hand to shake. Paul took it, but then immediately pulled back as if he had been shocked. Which, knowing Thalia, he probably had.

"Sorry." she muttered.

Paul wiped his hands on his coat jacket, and then grinned more warmly. "It's okay." he assured. Then he turned his attention back to me.

"So what was that whole sword fighting thing? A game?" he looked from us to the hill, as if wondering where camp was. "Isn't that a little dangerous for you kids?"

This time it was me who rolled my eyes. "Um, Paul? We're demigods. We _have_ to train for this stuff."

Paul cocked his head, and then looked at me again as if from a whole new perspective. "I thought all you guys did was drink wine and have parties. Isn't that what the Olympians did?"

Thalia snorted. "That's what a Son of Dionysus would think. Are you sure he's not one of them?"

Paul barely glanced at her as he waited for my explanation. I shrugged. "Camp Half Blood does have drinking limitations." I reminded him. "But the main reason to stay there is to learn how to survive.

My stepfather nodded slowly. "Uh huh…." Then, he grinned.

"You know what," he said, his tone light, "why don't you and I have a sparring match someday, you know, to see how we'll you've been trained."

I looked at him strangely.

Well that was unexpected.

"Sure…" I said cautiously, not sure whether he was joking or not. At the moment, it seemed as if he wasn't.

Paul turned to look back at Thalia, who was also giving him a strange look. He smiled apologetically.

"Sorry for, um, knocking you down like that." he said. Thalia shrugged.

"I'm use to it." she muttered. And then she stomped off back up the hill, holding out her hand briefly in a goodbye without bothering to turn around.

"See ya!" I called out.

She didn't answer. Not that I was expecting it.

"So…let's get you back home." Paul said, breaking the moment and motioning to his car in the process.

I looked at the hill one last time, imagining Camp Half Blood and all my friends in front of me.

"Bye…" I muttered.

And then I turned around to follow Paul to the car.

**Aloha everybody! (no, I'm not in Hawaii)  
**

**Thank you to all who have left such kind review to these stories. It's nice to know that people are actually bothering to read my stories. And that you enjoy them. **

**A special message to my best friend Irena Fiddlesticks: Yes, we may both be mad at Rick Riordan for making us wait so long for the next book, but that doesn't mean that writing fic's for his stories aren't as fun. And while, yes, I may not be Japanese, it doesn't mean that I can't speak it!  
**

**Please tell me what you think of this one-shot! Like what I said above. Writing this was a lot of fun.**


	5. Karma Never Stood A Chance

**I never thought that Nancy was talked about enough in the Percy Jackson series. After all, she was technically the person who started it all. So let's give a big round of applause to our unsung antagonist. The one and only, Nancy Bobofit!**

I was just on my way back home when I felt it. That faint, tugging sensation in your pocket that you feel when you know you're being pick-pocketed.

I spun around, instinctively reaching for Riptide (my sword that magically transforms into a pen if capped) when suddenly, a fist came swinging around and slammed directly into my face. If it weren't for my dip in the Styx, I probably would have been knocked out. Even so, it still hurt.

I looked around for my assailant, when I suddenly realized that Riptide was missing. My fingers were scrambling for the familiar pen when I suddenly noticed a big clump of red hair running away from me. I followed suit.

Turns out the four years I spent at camp had finally payed off, because after three long minutes of desperate sprinting and yelling for the person to "Stop!", I managed to catch up to the thief. My hand grabbed her arm right as she was about to leap onto a platform right besides the river, jerking her backwards.

"Hey!" she cried, sending another fist my way. This time, I dodged it easily, expecting the attack. Off balance, the thief stumbled, letting go of my pen and revealing her face to me for the first time.

I let go of her arm in shock. "Nancy Bobofit?"

She spun around, facing me head on. Her appearance hadn't changed since I'd first met her. A fiery red clump of curly hair barely sat on her head, vaguely reminding me of Medusa's snake-do. The freckles on her face didn't look spray painted anymore though. They looked more like a collage of orange and red dots that an artist was trying to do with only one eye open.

Not flattering in the least.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her eyes swiveling from left to right, searching for an opportunity to sprint away.

My eyebrows rose. "I'm Percy, remember?"

"Percy…" she trailed off. "Never heard of him."

She skipped to the left, preparing to run again. I grabbed hold of her wrist. "Oh no you don't."

She growled, and stomped around, looking at me again. "Look, if you want your pen back, take it!" she complained, pointed at Riptide on the ground. "Just let me go!"

I finally complied, releasing her. As she theatrically rubbed her arm in the place where I gripped her, I bent down the pick up my pen. When I straightened up again, I noticed that she was looking at me with a queer expression.

"You know what?" she started, a nasty sneer forming on her freckled face, "I _did_ know a Percy Jackson once." Then she grinned. "He hasn't changed much, has he?"

I gave her my best death glare. "It's nice to know that somebody remembers me." I said dryly. "Tell me, are water fountains still you specialty?"

Her grin died, replaced by a grimace. "I'm glad Yancy kicked you out, Percy." she hissed, "The school year was _loads_ better without you."

I forced out a laugh. "How? With a bunch of delinquents, crazies, and a kleptomaniac **(1)** running it?"

Her face turned beet red. Suddenly, she smirked, and changed the subject. "So, how's the handicap these days?"

It took me a second to realize she was talking about Grover. My fists curled into a ball. "He's fine." I replied, terse. Nancy laughed.

"Oh Percy." she sighed mockingly, shaking her head. "We all know that Grover's not okay." She took a slow step closer to me. "After all, he's friends with _you_."

Before I realized what she was doing, Nancy pushed me off the dock and directly into the filthy water below. Completely caught off guard, I didn't have time to will the water to get me wet, so I came up completely dry without a single piece of trash on me. Luckily, Nancy didn't seem to notice.

"Whoops!" she cried, feigning a look of surprise. "Looks like Karma's a pain to you too. Anyways, see ya Jackson!" Nancy spun around on her toes and promptly walked away without a single glance at me to see if I was still _alive_.

Now, I didn't know if it was her comment about Grover, or that she said that karma was on her side, or the fact that she just pushed me into one of the _dirtiest rivers_ in Western civilization that did it, but I was mad. So mad, I could almost feel my eyes glowing red. There was a painful tug in my gut, and out of nowhere, a two story wave cascaded onto the dock, slamming directly into Nancy. With a scream, she was swept off her feet, and dumped directly into the churning waters below.

I slowly climbed out of the river as she came up sputtering and covered in trash. Just then did I realize that the waters may be poisonous to a mortal like Nancy. So, with a sigh, I willed the water not to harm her, to stay clean around her.

Not as easy as it looks, I can tell you that

"Percy Jackson!" she screamed, royally ticked off.

I glanced at her, smirking.

"What did I do this time?"

Her eyes blazed as she tried to pinpoint the wave on me. "You... Yancy…Museum…ARG!"She splashed her hands into the water in desperation.

"Careful." I taunted. "I hear those waters can give you a third eye if you stay in there long enough."

And then, chuckling at Nancy's sudden expression of horror, I walked away, Riptide in my pocket and a spring in my step.

For once, I had to agree with Nancy. Karma may be a pain.

But when you've got the gods in your family?

Karma doesn't stand a chance.

**Before anybody starts talking about how short this was, or how my grammar had so many hiccups they thought it was dying, let me just set something straight.**

**(1) A kleptomaniac is someone who can't help but steal little things, like pens or paper clips or something. Nancy was described as having something like this in The Lightning Thief. Along with the title of Worst Bully that was something _I_ came up with.  
**

**And yes, despite what I said two lines earlier, please don't hesitate to review. Honestly.**

**-Emma Zooka**


	6. The Lemonade Bet

**Just as I had said before, I went back into this fic and re-wrote a couple of portions. It's still the same story though, so don't worry about that. **

**To all the people reading it for the first time, though, I hope you enjoy it!**

"Annabeth, do you think you can get that compass over there? By the table?"

Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, head councilor of cabin eight, and newly appointed architect of Olympus turned around to look at her brother, Malcolm, who was glancing discreetly at the measuring tool in the table besides her. She sighed, grabbing the tool he'd asked for and tossing it over to him in one swift motion.

"Thanks." he muttered gratefully, immediately turning back to his work.

Annabeth internally groaned as she turned back to look at her blueprints of Olympus. It was a great honor to be appointed the new architect of Olympus, an honor she could have never dreamed about until the day Percy had defeated Kronos. But just as she had told Percy before, _'There is no such thing as a free lunch'_. It was hard enough having to concentrate on the precise acoustics of the concert hall, or the exact locations in the throne room. Add in being the head councilor of the Athena cabin, and she was all but ready to tear her hair out.

Just then, as if the Fates were determined to taunt her, one of the younger kids screamed.

"Oh man, I just spilled my lemonade!"

Without bothering to look up, Annabeth sighed. "There are some towels in the back."

"Um…Annabeth?" Emily, one of the older Athena campers said hesitantly. "We used up all the towels last night, both cloth and paper combined."

Finally having given up on concentrating, Annabeth groaned again, abandoning her work and turning to look at the spillage. Stupid Aphrodite party. Why did they even have to have that hose fight yesterday? All it did was mess up their makeup and show everybody how well Percy could control the water to blast everyone at the same time.

What did they expect? He _was _the son of the sea god.

"Then ask Chiron for some napkins from the dining hall, or from the other cabins."

"Oh….no." another camper muttered. Annabeth stared at the lemonade, which happened to be slowly creeping up to the piles of stuff stacked up in the corners and walls as the campers were powerless to stop it. "They got into my earphones. My _iPod_ earphones! Crap! My dad just got those for me for my birthday!"

Annabeth got up, and started looking around for anything absorbent as the some of her siblings went out to search for towels. "You can get the Hephaestus cabin to fix them later." she soothed.

Just then, as if to add a log to the pyre of mayhem, the youngest and newest camper of her cabin cried out. "Annabeth! Annabeth!"

She spun around, half expecting there to be a monster in the doorway or an unexpected invasion of camp. Instead, there was only a frightened seven year old, pointing helplessly at the heater in the corner of her bunk.

"I think it's going into that machine thingy…" she muttered.

Annabeth groaned as she walked over to the heater to inspect the damage. They were the _Athena_ cabin, for gods sakes! They couldn't be beaten by such a simple thing like spilled lemonade. What the Hades had gotten into the cabin?

"Annabeth! It's going into the blueprints! My blueprints! I just drew those out a month ago!"

"Annnaaabbbeethh! My sheets will be ruined! I don't even like the color yellow!"

"Annabeth! Help me! It's gonna ruin my computer!"

"Holy crap! What's wrong with the lemonade?"

The last comment, which just so happened to be from Malcolm, was what caused Annabeth to spin around so fast she nearly slipped and tipped over. Just as she caught herself, her mouth fell open in shock. The sugary liquid previously spilled seemed to be supernaturally creeping up the walls, the desks, the beds; reaching out in thick, shiny arms of juice and covering everything like some demented, yellow paint.

"Um…" Annabeth muttered as she slowly reached for knife. "Emily, go get Chiron."

But Emily didn't move. Nor did Malcolm, or Tracy, or anybody else that was left in the cabin. Instead, they all grinned.

It finally dawned on Annabeth as she stared at her siblings, and back to the lemonade. "You-" she started, unable to say anything else in her surprise. Then, as another thought occurred to her, her grey eyes flashed.

"Perseus. Jackson!" she cried, a hot ball of indignant anger beginning to form in the pit of her stomach as she scanned all around the room for a hint of her son of Poseidon friend, an indication that her Seaweed Brain of a boyfriend was hiding in the shadows. "Show yourself!"

A mysterious chuckle came from the corners, and then, "Gods, I thought you'd _never_ figure it out."

Annabeth snarled as Percy's head appeared out of the shadows, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"What was that all about?" She turned to glare at the rest of cabin mates as Percy fully stepped out of the dark. "All of you! What did you do that for?"

Emily shrugged nonchalantly, unaffected by Annabeth's withering stare. "We thought you were getting too preoccupied with your blueprints and all, so we decided that we might give you a little action to charge up your brain." Then, after seeing Annabeth's reaction, she broke and added hurriedly, "It was Percy's idea."

Annabeth, barely withholding a shriek of protest, closed her eyes, trying to calm her irritation. Even so, that didn't stop her from immediately drawing her knife and pointing it directly at Percy.

"You. Out of this cabin. Now."

Percy grinned meekly. "Geez, Annabeth, we didn't mean for you get all upset like this."

"Actually we did." Angie, another Athena camper piped up from the back of the room. "We were just planning to blame everything on you."

Percy's eyebrows rose. "Oookay. So you did plan it." He held his arms up in surrender before adding. "But before you decide to kill me, I just wanted you to know that it was Melody and Cathy from the Apollo cabin who bet that I couldn't pull it off. Now they owe me 3 drachmas."

Annabeth glared at him reproachfully. "It doesn't matter; it was you who executed the idea. Not to mention ruined half of this cabin's stuff."

Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm insulted by the lack of faith you have in me." he said with mock hurt. Suddenly, to Annabeth's amazement (not that she was ever gonna show it), all the lemonade suddenly flew back into its original cup, leaving no trace of the spillage that once dominated the room.

"After all, I _am_ the Son of Poseidon."

Now it was Annabeth's turn to roll her eyes at the sheer cockiness of her boyfriend. "Just keep telling yourself that when you realize that you can't stop a tsunami, Fish Brains."

Percy's eyes lit up, extricating a groan from the rest of the Athena cabin as they realized what she did.

"Want to bet?"

**So...Who liked it?**

**Honestly, I _still_ think there are some parts I can fix. I'll check up on it later. But don't hesitate to review (please don't), because _everything_ you say will help. Critisism and complements are ALL welcome here!**


	7. I Teach My Swim Coach a Important Lesson

**Ah ha ha! This is what I call **_**almost**_** speedy updating! **

**And anyways, word of early warning, this story is a bit darker and more violent than my other one-shots. But Percy does get to show some of his talents, so that's a bonus!**

**Just don't expect him to be as… nice as he usually is this time.**

"Jackson! What did I tell you about that form of yours? Chin down, back straight, and none of that wishy-washy arm movement that you're giving me!"

Internally, I groaned as I finally finished my 5th lap in the school pool. Knowing that I had done nothing wrong, I leaned against the side of the wall as I took off my goggles and rubbed the water out of them.

Theatrically of course.

Swimming for me was about as easy as breathing, being the Son of the Poseidon and all. Honestly, I think the coach was just envious of my aquatic skills, and the fact that I seem to always be taking out the competition without a single care in the world.

"Jackson!" Coach Gammon yelled at me again. "Are you hearing this?"

The kids besides me who had finally caught up snickered. I don't know why, but for some reason people have idolized the fact that being the best at something (in my case swimming) causes you to be a star among your peers.

Far from it.

Blinded with jealousy, the kids on the team have never missed a chance to taunt me, to tease me, or to more or less make me feel unwelcomed. It wasn't exactly my fault that I could control the water to propel me forward, or not have to worry about breathing because I could already do that _in the pool itself_. I just…swam.

"Jackson!" Mr. Gammon repeated once more, his voice dangerously calm. I stared at him blearily.

"Yes sir?"

"Are you by any chance deaf, Jackson?" the dear coach said quietly. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"There might be some water in my ears, yes, sir."

The pool went quiet as the rest of the team processed what I had said. Mr. Gammon's face slowly turned beat red. Then purple. And then blue.

Just as I started wondering if he needed medical attention, he hissed, "Meet me after practice, _Percy Jackson_."

"Yes sir." I muttered, slowly pushing myself out of the pool to get my towel.

Jake Adler, the mortal that relished any chance to torture me, finally recognized the opportunity by taunting, "Oh no. Little widdle Percy Jackson just got called out by the coach. Now he looks like he's gonna cry." The rest of the Adler gang snickered.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the scoffs from the rest of my team as I grabbed my towel, casually flicking off the wad of hair Adler and his gang obviously put on it earlier. Gods, why could they just learn their lesson and give me a break? For once? I mean, come on! I totally creamed them in this exact swimming pool only a few months ago!

Without meaning to, my gut tightened, and all the water in the pool suddenly rose, catching everybody getting out of it off guard and sending them toppling back into the bleached water below.

Including coach Gammon.

"What the-" he choked as water suddenly went up his nose. And then, for no reason at all, he turned and shot dagger eyes at me.

"Perseus. Jackson!" he screamed, finally losing the composer that he never had in the first place. "What the _flip_ are you doing to the pool?"

I nearly chuckled when he said "flip", (It was a school after all. Every teacher has to follow the rules) but it immediately faded to something closer to dread when the coach ordered every other teammate out of the pool. An early dismissal.

There was only one problem. Mr. Gammon _never_ dismissed early.

"See ya in Heaven, twerp." Jake whispered under his breath as he passed by me on the way out. I gulped. Even after battling countless of monsters, turned demigods, and Kronos himself, it couldn't compare to the look Mr. Gammon was giving me as he slowly climbed out of the pool, swearing like a fiend the whole time.

Which reminded me. How on earth was I supposed to get Riptide out of the locker room if the coach happened to pull one of those famous _Annoying-citizen-turned-raging-monster _stunts on me? I'd had enough of those for a lifetime. And yet it never seems to stop them. Strange…

"What were you trying to pull in there Jackson?" Gammon demanded as he finally came to a stop in front of me. I gave him my best, innocent child look as I tried to steer my impending doom into something less…impending.

"Look, if it's about the whole ear-in-water thing, I'm sorry…"

"Not that you idiot!" the coach said impatiently. I was stunned to silence. Did he just call me an idiot?

"How the heck did you manage to get the pool to do that whole…water rising thing?"

I simply stared at him as I tried to think of a reasonable, yet obtuse excuse. Was this man another clear sighted mortal? Surely a monster would have already been all "Puny Son of Poseidon." on me and attacked by then.

"Um… coach, why are you blaming it on me? I was nowhere near the pool when it happened."

"Oh don't give me that excuse again. I _know _you did it!"

Internally, I groaned at the fact that Chiron still hadn't taught me how to manipulate the Mist yet. If he had, we probably would have already been done with this argument by now. Or never have had it in the first place.

"What do you mean you _know_ I did it? You were there falling into the pool with everybody else." I countered, trickles of anger beginning to build up in my chest.

Mr. Gammon's face reddened. "Jackson, I'm warning you…"

But that was just the beginning. "And, even if you hadn't fallen in, why would you blame it on me if I was just standing there holding my towel. Nowhere _near_ the pool's water controls."

"Jackson, if you keep that tone with me one more time…"

"And last of all, what do you have against me Mr. _Alfred_ Gammon? What have I ever done to you that make you hate me so much?"

I could tell that I struck a sensitive nerve, whether it was the whole Alfred thing or my accusation, but before I knew it, the coach's fist slammed into my face, propelling me directly into the pool from the momentum.

"Jackson! I warned you!" the coach screamed as I managed to reach the surface, my face breaking through the water. The curse of Achilles (which at the moment I wouldn't call a curse) was the only thing that was keeping my nose from separating from my skull and the rest of my head from a nasty concussion. That old man could hit hard.

"For gods sakes, what was that for?" I yelled back as I willed the water to push me near the edge of the pool. He had just crossed the line between angry coach and raging lunatic. Almost instinctively, I prepared myself for another attack, just like I would have during camp training, or a monster attack.

Chiron would be proud.

"That was for being a lazy, selfish wimp!" the coach powered on. And then he walked up to the pool and tried to kick me in the water. I just barely managed to avoid it.

"And that was for being the worst trainee I've ever known!"

I was really starting to get ticked off now. For starters, the coach of the swim team just so happened to have _punched_ me into the pool. Didn't teachers have some sort of oath that read: _Thou shall not attack students for fear of angry parents and losing thy job_? They simply weren't supposed to do that sort of stuff!  
Secondly, that exact same teacher had just called me a wimp, and the worst trainee he'd even known. I was even beginning to doubt his sanity. I've heard kids had called him harsh before, but this was downright abuse!

So then, with all the force I could muster, I willed the water to propel me up and out of the pool, surprising both myself and the coach. But that was nothing compared to when I willed the water to rise up into the air like some demented liquid beast come to life. All coach Gammon could do was gap in awe as thousands of gallons of H2O swirled around his head like a funnel, threatening to burst at any moment. I even managed to force all the water in from the drinking fountains and locker rooms to trickle out of their original home and merge into the storm cloud I was holding with just the sheer force of my will.

The coach's expression was priceless. "You…you-" he stuttered, his eyes wide as saucers. He stared back at me, expression in full panic mode.

"You! You s-s-stop that! Right this instance! Whatever you're doing…"

"Or you'll do what?" I taunted, dropping the funnel a foot and causing Mr. Gammon to squeal like a pig. "Report me? Yeah right. They'd never believe you even if you did."

The coach immediately lost whatever composure he had left and tried running for the exit door, but I managed to maneuver the water to sit in the way of it before he made it. Now he was trapped, left to face my wrath for all the times he'd taunted me for no good reason. All the times he'd teased me.

_Everything._

"W-who are you?" the coach stuttered, eyes darting around for any other exit route. I sneered menacingly, the words flowing out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Who am I?" I chuckled mockingly as I marveled at my own power. Even now, despite the tons of water I was holding, I wasn't tired at all. No sign of fatigue even flitted through my body. It was as if I had become the water itself. Water filled with anger and a need for major vengeance.

"I, Perseus Jackson, am the Son of Poseidon, god of the seas, storms, and earthquakes. Savior of Olympus and New York and all of Western Civilization. Conqueror of Kronos, the titan king and lord of time. Bearer of the previous Great Prophecy. Leader of all the demigods of Half Blood Hill.

"And you, Mr. Gammon, have just ticked. Me. _Off_."

The coach, finally unable to stand it anymore, fell down in a dead faint. I was just about to do him the favor of waking him up by dumping my water load on his head when out of nowhere; my stepfather Paul came running in through the door.

"Percy!" he cried, his hands waving frantically for my attention. "Percy, I saw the whole thing. Percy, no! Don't!"

My expression must have been frightening because Paul immediately winced and took a step back when I turned my attention on him.

His words managed to reach me though, and I reluctantly lowered the funnel of water back into the pool, leaving no trace of what I had managed to do.

Paul, on the other hand, was soon goggling at me as he tried to catch his breath from running.

"So…Percy." he finally said after a minute of awkward silence. "The whole water thing…that's pretty…pretty powerful…"

I was still staring regretfully at Coach Gammon as the words processed in my head. "Thanks, I guess." I muttered.

Paul must have finally found his courage, or at least determined that I wasn't a threat, because he slowly came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry about Alfred." he reassured me. "The rest of the staff hates him anyways."

I chuckled humorlessly. "I wonder why."

Another minute or two of silence, and then I turned around to see Paul staring at me expectantly. I frowned. "What?"

He grinned. "Well? Are you coming?"

I stare at him. "Coming where?"

"Back to your house. I thought the only thing you kids thought about during class was going home."

I couldn't help but grin back at the indignant tone Paul was using. It made him sound like a guy who just had his whole aspect on the world changed.

And trust me. I know _exactly_ what that sounds like.

But as I turned to walk out the door, I caught site of Mr. Gammon again, who was just starting to wake up. I signaled for Paul to stop as I stared at him regretfully. If only I could have done one little thing, one last mark of vengeance…

I turned back to see Paul nodding at me. "Don't worry." he said, smirking. "I didn't see a thing."

I smiled. And then, with a slight twinge in my stomach, a giant spout of water shot out from the pool, hitting Coach Gammon full on on the head with the force of a real life water hose. Only ten times harder.

"Splurg!" Mr. Gammon choked as he swallowed the sudden entourage of water. And then his head fell back down again; his second faint in a day.

"Huh…" I said, staring at the coach, and then at Paul questioningly. "I thought having water dumped on your face usually wakes the person up."

Paul chuckled, shaking his head. "Obviously not for Coach Gammon."

And then we both left the room, leaving a soggy Mr. Gammon lying on the floor, unconscious, and unbeknown to the fact that I had just revealed one of the biggest secrets of the world to him.

What a lucky guy.

But then again, if he ever asks, I could always just call it a dream, right?

**It's an abusive coach versus an angry Percy! Haha! **

**I still have no idea how I came up with this plot, though. It was originally just gonna be Percy on the swim team, but then Mr. Gammon came along, and it changed the**_** entire**_** story. **

**Oh, and before anybody comments on how Paul can seemingly see through the Mist, think about it this way. His vision _is_ being manipulated by the Mist, so he's probably seeing random water pipes blowing up and other un-godly stuff. But due to his knowledge on Percy's heritage, he can easily assume that Percy's behind everything. Mist or not.  
**

**But despite that, if anything seemed too fast, or too OOC, or just downright wrong, don't hesitate to review and I'll fix it as soon as I can.**

**Actually, any sort of review would be nice. I like seeing what you guys think.**

** :) Emma**


	8. What it Takes To Teach A Teacher

**I've decided to post this small, short, cute little fanfic I thought up of one day as I was reviewing my previous posts. I mean, how many times will you ever see Percy and Paul go head to head in sword fighting? Not many. **

**Warning: This fic is extremely short. Read at your own risk. (Haha, I've always wanted to say that)  
**

**Oh yeah, and my apologies for taking so long to post a story. My list had run out of good ideas for stories some time ago. Darn imagination. It's left me for the time being. **

**Last thing I always forget to do. Percy Jackson _does not_ belong to me.  
**

I couldn't believe that I was actually doing it.

"Paul? You _sure_ you want to do this?"

My stepfather, Paul Blofis was grinning at me in a confident way as he blew aside the one advice for preventing a humiliating loss from his stepson and a severe blow to his ego.

"Nah, Percy." he said casually, twirling the makeshift sword he had in his hands like they do in the movies. "Give me all you've got."

Not too long ago, as he was picking me up from my last stay at Camp Half Blood, Paul had challenged me to a sword fighting duel. Now, at the time, I had thought that he was joking. After all, I'd been training with swords since I was…twelve. And him? He'd done a play with it. Sure, he was a smart man, and the overall concept was sure to stick with him. But against a demigod? I guess he knew less about us than I apparently thought.

"Paul," I tried valiantly one last time. "Are you absolutely _positive_?"

Paul lowered his "sword" (which happened to be a big stick we'd found in the basement) and stared at me dejectedly. "Yes! Of course." And then he grinned at me. "Or are you too scared to face such a master like me?"

It was only then did I conclude that he was pulling my strings and really begging to be painfully defeated. Shaking my head, I sighed exasperatedly, "Bring it on."

Paul attacked without hesitation. Riptide flashed in the air as I immediately had to raise it above me as Paul tried to wack me on the head. A simple move, I had to admit it, not one that I'd had expected. I thrusted his sword away from me, and slashed toward his torso. An extremely obvious strike, but Paul had to jump away at the last second from being skewered.

Not that he had to worry, of course. The celestial bronze metal in Riptide would have just passed right through him, being a normal human and all. Mortals had it so lucky.

Paul glanced at me again, a more focused light in his eyes. I grinned, and tried my own attack, which he surprisingly blocked at the last second. Not bad. But not good enough.

"So…Percy." he tried to make small talk as we both focused on not being hit. "How long have you been training with swords?"

I half shrugged as I had to counter his move. "Not long." I retaliated with my own strike. "Give or take four years, plus some battles and skirmishes with monsters to help."

Paul nodded, taking in the information in stride. I had to hand it to him. He didn't seem phased by the fact that he was battling a demigod. We kids were practically raised to hold our own in battle.

But a few minutes into the battle, I could see that he was tiring out. His face was beet red, sweat was dripping down his neck like a small storm, and I could hear his breath coming out in short, shallow pants. Grinning to myself, I decided to finish it. Might as well save Paul from the humiliation of losing to a kid from falling down in pure exhaustion. He'd already learned his lesson anyway. Two of them to be exact.

_Lesson one_, I thought to myself as I proceeded in giving Paul an onslaught of moves that I'd been holding back from him from the very beginning. Paul huffed and puffed like the big bad wolf as he tried to keep up with my attack. A slash there, a feint and strike here. Only the campers for Camp could have successfully blocked every move. I refrained from smirking, though, taking into consideration of the fact that that would only add insult to injury.

_Lesson one. Sword fighting is harder and more energy draining that it really looks like. _

Paul finally held up his hands in defeat after a minute of my tirade. I stopped mid-strike, and then finally allowed myself a small smiled as he bent down, hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"So…Paul." I tried casually as I took out Riptide's pen cap and touched it to the tip. It immediately transformed back into a harmless writing utensil. Paul was still breathing in deep, gasping breaths of air, not making any sign that he'd heard me. I continued on anyways, unperturbed. "I take it that this satisfies your curiosity?"

Paul closed his eyes and nodded, finally finding enough strength left over to prop himself back into a standing position. "Like a cat." he mumbled out weakly.

I grinned. Nodding to myself, I finally walked over to him to help him out. Personally, I felt great. It was really nice to finally be able to refresh my muscles, to get that Camp Half Blood training vibe for a second. But then again, that just leads into lesson number two.

_Lesson two_, I concluded to my smiling self as Paul and I walked out of the park and back to the road to find a taxi.

_Never underestimate Percy when he comes with a sword. _

**Yup. Percy pawns Paul. What can you expect though? **

**Rate and Review. Please. I can't say how many times that has made my day, or how many ideas it has given me. **

**I promise to try and post faster next time! **

**:)  
**


	9. Paul Gets Introduced To The Floor

**My longest Water Balloon fic yet. I'm so happy I finally finished!**

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This takes place BEFORE **_**The Last Olympian**_**, but AFTER **_**The Battle of the Labyrinth**_**. If you didn't know that, then you'd probably be confused about a few things until the very end.**

**Enjoy!**

I never thought of Paul Blofis as a superstitious person.

I mean, being an English teacher and all, he probably read the reasons for something happening_ before_ he read about the actual thing. Like why mortals believe day is day and night is night. Or why girls supposedly mature faster than boys. Or why skateboarding is ten times better than snowboarding. You get what I'm talking about.

So, you can understand why he wouldn't believe me if I told him my dad was Poseidon. He'd probably call me crazy, and then explain to me word for word why the sea acts how it does (or at least the mortal definition), and why it is theoretically impossible for my dad to be Poseidon if he doesn't exist.

So, then, how did I manage to break the news to my stepfather?

Well…let's just say that it wasn't pretty.

My day started out as regular as it could get. Long classes, annoying teachers, bloodthirsty school bullies…the usual. It was when I was walking home from school when my step father, Paul Blofis, conveniently pulled up in his Prius right behind me. And that's when things went a little…_different_.

"Percy!" he cried, surprising me. I jumped, hand instinctively reaching for Riptide before realizing it was only him. Graciously, he ignored my spasm.

"I'm on my way to your place." he explained in an easy tone. "Do you want a ride?"

I grinned, nodding. Paul was a cool guy. He was probably as understanding and pleasant as any middle aged, high school English teacher could get. But that didn't mean he'd let me cheat on my homework assignments. Far from it.

On the way there, just as we pulled up on the curb, he suddenly turned around. "So, what do you think you're going to do this summer?"

I hesitated. Despite what my mom and I had agreed upon earlier, we still hadn't told my stepfather about my godly parentage. Or camp. Or even the fact that I could probably beat him in any sport he'd try to win at. But then again, that probably had nothing to do with being a demigod.

"I…uh…" I was stuck. What could I tell him? It wasn't like I could just up and say, _"Oh, I'm just going to a camp that teaches you how to fight monsters, survive in the mortal world, and hope I don't die."_ That probably wouldn't get the best reaction.

Paul, however, appeared to be excited by my uncertainty. "Well," he said hurriedly, "before you make up your mind, it just so happens that I found a good summer school for kids with dyslexia." Immediately, he started digging around in his briefcase, ignoring the indignant stare I was giving him as he shuffled through homework assignments and grading reports. "I know a few friends that went there and they said that they all had a _great_ time."

"Am I assuming that your friends can drink and drive and teach?" I asked dryly.

He laughed, briefly giving up his briefcase search. "Touché, Percy."

But then he gave me his best pleading look, as if he were trying to explain through his thoughts that he really thought it would be good for me. Unfortunately for him, being a demigod didn't include mind reading.

"I'm sorry Paul." I said carefully, making sure my words didn't reveal too much. "But I think I might be going back to that summer camp I went to last year."

Paul's face dropped in disappointment, but then it grew clear again just as quickly. "Percy," he sighed, "Are you sure you want to go back to the same place?" He cut off my immediate protests by holding up his hands. "I mean, there will be new people. New things. _Different_ things. And I can assure you that your old friends won't be the same as before."

I answered with a response only a demigod would give him. An irritated glare.

"Paul." I tried to reason with him as I held back my rising temper. What did he know about my friends and Camp Half Blood? "I've been going to that camp for 4 years. I think I know what it's like."

My stepfather held up his hands again, only this time in surrender. "Whatever you say.

"But don't forget about the other offer."

I growled under my breath, taking back what I'd said earlier. Paul might be a cool guy, but that didn't mean he was different from other adults. They were almost all as blind a Minotaur, and it had _nothing_ to do with the Mist.

At least, most of the time.

As I got out of the car, another surprise presented itself to me. This time it was in the form of a girl. A girl that happened to be named Annabeth Chase.

"Percy Jackson!" she cried from the street over, obviously riled up about something as she began to stomp her way towards me. I glanced at Paul, who was staring at her and then back at me in a mixture of confusion and fear. I didn't blame him. A mad Annabeth was _not_ something you wanted to mess with.

But the first question in my mind was _why the heck_ _she was here_. The last time I'd seen her was at Camp, right after the Battle of the Labyrinth. She was in Manhattan? Since when was she in Manhattan?

And what the Hades was she yelling at me for?

"A-Annabeth?" I stuttered. Her eyes flashed. Seemingly oblivious to Paul, her hands curled up into a fist, as if she were gonna punch me. When she came to a stop in front of me, though, she lowered it slowly, as if deciding against it. Thank the gods.

"Why didn't you tell me there was an attack near your school yesterday?" she demanded. I frowned, confused. An attack near Goode? What was she talking about?

"I don't know what you're talking about." I repeated out loud. "What attack?"

"A monster ambushed two campers yesterday, right next to your school, and you didn't know?" Her voice edged up two octaves.

I glanced at Paul, who looked as though he were torn between breaking up our argument or just walking away. Annabeth followed my line of sight, and then tensed. It finally seemed to dawn on her that we had company; he didn't have a clue of what we were talking about.

"Does he know?" she asked, her anger slowly dying out. I shook my head. It was only then did I realize that something _really bad_ must have happened to make her _this _angry, and miss something as important as my mortal stepfather.

"Maybe we should take this argument inside." Paul finally spoke up. I nodded. Annabeth's eyes flashed again, provoking a flinch from Paul, and she stormed to the front door of my house.

"Um…" Paul stared at Annabeth as she came to a rest at the top of the stairs, glaring at me to hurry up and unlock the door. "Should I assume that you two already know each other? Well?"

I chuckled humorlessly. "Assume away."

Once inside, Annabeth immediately walked over to the kitchen table and plopped down onto one of the chairs.

"Percy, are you home?" I heard my mom, Sally Jackson, call from one of the other rooms.

"He's here dear." Paul replied for me, and then glanced at Annabeth through the corner of his eye. "And one of his school friends too."

"Um," Annabeth said hesitantly, obviously regretting her previous actions, "I'm actually not from around here."

"Oh…"

The awkward was finally broken when my mother came in from the kitchen. The moment she saw Annabeth, her eyes lit up.

"Annabeth! So nice to see you again! Percy never told me you were coming back to Manhattan!"

I groaned. Of course. Blame Percy for every little ounce of information he never even knew about.

Annabeth answered for me. "Don't blame him, Ms. Jackson. He didn't know either."

My mom nodded, and smiled. Holding out her famous baking pan, she offered a sheet of golden brown perfection. "Cookies?"

To my surprise, Annabeth turned green, and shook her head. "No thanks, Mr. Jackson. Not today."

I, on the other hand, couldn't bear to waste fresh cookies. So I grabbed a handful.

The silence from before appeared again, the awkwardness only interrupted by my chewing the cookie in my hand. My mom was staring at Annabeth expectantly, waiting for her to explain her sudden appearance, and my stepfather was staring at her as well, sizing her up and obviously wondering who the heck she was.

Surprisingly, it was me who broke the silence. "So…" I started awkwardly, hastily swallowing the last crumbs of cookie in my mouth. All eyes turned to me, and my voice quieted some. "What happened near my school that I should know about?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to explain, but then immediately thought better of it as her attention turned to Paul. Again, she asked me, "Does he know?"

I shook my head as Paul started to complain. "I haven't told him yet."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"Hey!"

"Um, kids?" Paul finally managed to say, as both Annabeth and I were locked in a glaring contest again. "Mind telling me _what exactly_ you haven't told me yet? It would be nice if I were in the loop too."

Nobody took up his offer.

Paul ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. He turned to my mom, who simply met his gaze with a steady look. I glanced at Annabeth, who was staring at me, and shrugged. For a moment, I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, that something bad would happen, and the irreversible would occur. Things would never be the same again.

"Percy…" Paul tried again.

And that was when the front door was blown off its hinges.

My mom screamed. I threw my hands over my face to protect my eyes from the debris, all the while reaching for Riptide in my back pocket. Annabeth was quicker. By the time I'd blinked the spots out of my eyes, I saw her standing up, knife drawn and a grim look on her face. I turned to my mom, who was lying on the ground, and then at Paul, who was staring at me with a wild expression.

"_Honey! I'm home_!"

A growly, half grunting voice came through the entrance, while a strangely harmonious undertone settled in my mind. The thing standing in front of the door grinned at me through red, leering eyes. I blinked, thinking as though the dust from the explosion had muddled my eyesight. But it hadn't.

The monster was over seven feet tall, broad shouldered, and wearing classic Greek battle armor. The armor itself, surprisingly, seemed to be made out of pure gold, shining a blinding light whenever I looked at it too closely. Strangely enough, he almost seemed to have wings sprouting out from his back, greasy and leathery like a bats. But that wasn't the weirdest part.

His head was that of a boar, as were his hands and his legs. Hairy tufts of coarse fur sprouted out from under his armor, blending inhumanly with his skin as damp, greasy straggles of human hair stuck out all around. Long, sharp tusks sprouted out from the sides of his face, gleaming in the armor's glow and almost laughing in deadly delight. He almost reminded me of the Erymanthian boar we'd fought with the Hunters of Artemis, complete with ugly face and everything. A close relative, perhaps?

He took a step inside, glancing nonchalantly at the ruined furniture. Hefting his golden spear, he looked at me and spoke again. "_Or should I say…brother?"_

"Chrysaor." Annabeth hissed, her celestial bronze knife glinting in the light. Chrysaor turned around to glare at her.

"_Daughter of Athena."_ He said coolly, a hint of menace in strange voice. But then he turned back around to me, ignoring her again. I pulled out Riptide, feeling the comforting heaviness of the pen transforming into blade, and held it out in front of me in defense. Chrysaor grinned.

"_Brother."_ He said, merely glancing at the celestial bronze blade before continuing, _"Would you really strike down another Son of Poseidon?"_

His words startled me, almost to the point where the tip of my blade lowered a degree. Chrysaor was another Son of Poseidon? Why didn't I know?

Annabeth's words snapped me out of my confusion. "Don't fall for it!" she said urgently, her eyes never leaving the half boar man in front of her. "Chrysaor was born from the blood of Medusa, just as she was first killed by your namesake, Perseus." She then finally turned around to face me as her lips curved into a grim smile. "But he's right about one thing. We all know who the father is."

Chrysaor turned to glare at Annabeth while I blinked in surprise. My father and Medusa. One of the first monsters I'd ever killed; who my mother had petrified my first step father with. He was the offspring of the lady with the snake hair, created from the very meeting with my dad that bestowed on her her famous curse?

Wow. Small world.

"_Enough, Daughter of Athena."_ He hissed. Raising his spear, he pointed it at her chest. _"I must face with my brother, alone. Leave us now."_

To my surprise, she shook her head defiantly. "I'm not leaving Percy."

Chrysaor's red eyes suddenly grew bright. _"So be it, Daughter of Athena."_

So fast that I didn't see, he swung his spear with a yell, spinning it so that it wasn't the point flying toward Annabeth, but the butt of the handle. I saw Annabeth's eyes widen before the spear hit her on her side, throwing her across the room before she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"Annabeth!" My mom called from behind me, surprising me. I'd all but forgotten she was there. I spun around to face her and Paul, for a second throwing my attention completely away from Chrysaor.

"Go!" I cried, aiming my words mainly at Paul. He met my eyes and understood, immediately grabbing my mom's arm and dragging her away from the rubble and toward the fire escape. But he hadn't made it halfway before his eyes suddenly widened and he called out, "Percy!"

It wasn't a second after that a bolt of pain lit up my shoulder. Internally, I cursed at myself for forgetting about Chrysaor, for dropping my guard. The momentum of his attack threw me forward, directly toward the ground as Paul let go of my mom to run to me.

"No!" Annabeth screamed, having recovered enough to stand up, though still wobbly. "Paul, get Percy's mom out of here!"

Paul, after a second of indecision, finally complied, running after my mom toward the exit. From the ground on which I was lying, I could see his footsteps gradually fade away. When I heard the creak of a window being opened, I knew that they were safe.

But I wasn't. Just as painfully as it had been before, Chrysaor placed a heavy boot on my back and pulled the spear out of my shoulder, slowly. I screamed out loud, never having felt anything as bad is this. Vaguely, in my haze of pain, I sensed Annabeth rushing toward me, knife raised, and Chrysaor behind me, laughing.

"_Oh, little demigod."_ He teased. _"Our father would be shamed if all his sons were as weak as you."_

The jibe at my father's status sparked a bolt of anger inside me, as I immediately struggled to rise. His heavy boot pushed me down again, flaring a new wave of pain in my shoulder. I was almost afraid to see how damaged it was.

"Percy…" Annabeth said nervously, having finally reached me, her eyes alternating between me to Chrysaor. Chrysaor looked at her and laughed.

"_Foolish Athena-spawn."_ He said malevolently, _"One more step and my new brother will be freshly reacquainted with my spear. Perhaps this time in a more painful place."_

My hands searched for Riptide as Annabeth stared at me with an anxious expression. Groping the ground, I spoke through gritted teeth. "As much fun as it is meeting you and your little toy, why are you here? What have I done to you?"

Chrysaor behind me bristled, driving his foot deeper into my back. I clenched my teeth. Annabeth shifted nervously besides me.

"_Revenge."_

Annabeth frowned before a look of understanding lit up her face. Glancing at me, she said slowly, "We had no choice in killing Geryon. He was threatening to sell us out to the Titan army."

Angrily, Chrysaor pounded his spear against the floor, inches from my face. I winced from the spear as my brain struggled to keep up with Annabeth. Geryon, Chrysaor…Geryon had a tie to Chrysaor…

"_He was my son!"_ he cried. Leveling his spear with Annabeth, he growled in a very boar-like way, _"He was my only son, and you killed him."_

I grimaced as my search for Riptide came up empty. "Hate you tell you, pop's." I said, "But I don't think Geryon would win any awards in the _Best-Host_ or _Fair-Dealer_ category. I had to muck out a thousand tons of poop for him."

Chrysaor pounded his spear besides my face again. _"Quiet."_ He hissed.

I looked up to see Annabeth's face morphed once again into confusion. "But…" she hesitated. "But I thought you were a _god._"

Chrysaor chuckled humorlessly as a new thought occurred to me. If Riptide wasn't on the floor, then he had to be in my…

"_That's what all the stories say."_ He growled. _"But tell me, daughter of Athena, if Medusa were given such a harsh punishment for simply meeting with my father in a sacred site, imagine what it must be like for her spawn."_

Annabeth glanced at me as I slowly reached into my pocket. "But what about Pegasus?"

Chrysaor angrily flapped his wings. He growled. _"That no-good horse brained brother of mine. He got off easy because he was the nicer looking one."_

I smirked, relief flooding through me as my fingers found what they were looking for. "Nice family." I commented.

And that was when I struck.

Chrysaor cried out in pain as I brought down Riptide on his leg, cutting through the armor and into flesh. My injured shoulder screamed in agony from the abrupt motion though, and I struggled not to black out as Chrysaor howled above me.

Annabeth immediately sprang into action. So fast that I almost missed it, she ran forward, knocking away Chrysaor's spear and aiming her knife at his chest in one fluid motion. Before he could react, her blade plunged into his chest, twisting in the last few inches for good measure.

The force of Chrysaor's dying screamed nearly knocked me back down on my back. I closed my eyes against the sudden brightness of his armor, the blinding flash as he disintegrated into nothing. The back of my mind that wasn't too occupied with pain randomly commented on how Annabeth was wrong. Chrysaor was no normal monster. He had to have some godly blood in him.

I didn't realize that my eyes were still closed even after Chrysaor disappeared until I felt Annabeth shaking me to wake up. "Seaweed Brain," she hissed impatiently. "Come on. Open your eyes!"

I sputtered as I came to. "Uh…huh?"

Annabeth let go of my shoulder, and leaned back on her heels. If I wasn't mistaken, there was almost a look of concern in her eyes. Taking in my bleeding form, she asked me, "How are you feeling?"

I grimaced. Just barely managing to sit upright, my hand reached for my shoulder in a vain attempted to assess the damage. They came away bloody. "Try being shish-ca-bobbed in the shoulder and entitled footstool of a giant, and then tell me what it feels like."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. Jerking upright, I noticed in her rough motion that she was favoring her right side.

"You're hurt." I said, remembering how Chrysaor had knocked her across the room. Had she been like that the whole time?

Annabeth shook her head. "You're worse." Then she started walking away, gesturing for me to follow. "Come on, I think I have some ambrosia in my bag…"

Just then, my parents decided that it was safe enough to come back in. "Percy?" my mom asked as she stepped in from the fire escape. Her eyes widened as she took in my back. "Percy! What happened?"

I grimaced at her expression, half halfheartedly waving it off. "Don't worry." I reassured. "Some ambrosia and water should do the trick."

Paul followed my mom in, eyes harboring a similar look. "Percy…" he trailed off.

I waved them off again. "Don't worry about me."

But Paul wouldn't listen. Before I'd realized it, he'd picked up the phone. The remaining blood in my face drained away as I realized what he was doing. "No, Paul, no!"

He froze with the phone halfway to his ear. Giving me a look that asked if I were crazy, he demanded, "What do you mean, Percy?"

Annabeth came up beside me, her eyes wary. Her tone more commanding, she said, "Paul, set the phone down and we'll explain." She fixed me with a meaningful stare. "We'll explain _everything_."

I gulped. But it did the trick. Paul, though reluctantly, gradually set the phone down on the charger, and walked forward a few steps for good measure. We all let out a collective groan, though I winced as the movement jarred my open wound, sending another spike of pain throughout my shoulder and upper back. I noticed Annabeth's eyes furrow.

"How bad is it?" I asked her grimly. She hesitated, and then shrugged, gesturing at her bag.

"You may need some extra ambrosia."

Paul finally stepped back in, his expression confused. "Ambrosia?" he asked.

Annabeth shrugged, simultaneously reaching in her bag for a Ziploc of the godly food. "It's like medicine for us." she explained generally, arm shuffling through all her stuff to get to the bottom. As she pulled out the Ziploc, Paul's eyebrows rose at the simplicity of it.

She shrugged. "A _very_ effective medicine."

She broke off a chunk for herself, but handed me a full cube. My eyebrows rose. Incredulously, I asked, "You really want me to burn up?"

She grimaced. "Just eat it."

And I did. As the warm, energizing taste of my mom's blue cookies flooded my mouth, I felt my shoulder slowly healing. Paul quietly gasped behind me, but I ignored him, silently reveling as my new aches and pains melted away, only spoiled by the fiery aftertaste. Instinctively, I knew that if Annabeth had given me any more, I surely would have burst into flames.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked me, already finished with her piece. I nodded.

"Uh huh."

Paul spoke up again, though this time expression more unnerved. "Okay," he demanded. "Will you two _please_ explain to me how you two are suddenly okay, and what the heck do you mean by '_us'_?" He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation before any of us could say anything. "I mean, I drive Percy home from school today, just a normal day from work, and next thing I know there's a crazy pig-man attacking this house, a girl that seems to have life saving _ice cubes_ in her bag, and a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up." He pointed an accusing finger at me, angrier than I've ever seen him in a long time. "Start explaining young man."

I decided to make it blunt. Staring him in the eye, I explained it the simplest way I could. "Paul. Annabeth and I are half god."

All movement besides me froze. My mom stared at Paul with wary eyes, afraid of his reaction. Annabeth blinked, but said nothing, settling for simply backing me up when the time came. Paul himself backtracked, not expecting my answer. I went on, ignoring the way his jaw suddenly seemed to detach and widen.

"We're called demigods, half bloods. My dad, my _real_ dad, is Poseidon, the god of the seas." I gestured at Annabeth, who was nodding in affirmation. "Annabeth's mom is Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. She specializes in anything brainiac or logistical." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Paul's jaw remained slack, a strange, guttural sound coming from the back of his throat. For a moment, I was worried that he'd gone temporarily brain dead. "Uh huh…" he finally managed, weakly.

Annabeth smoothly carried on in my explanation. "That huge creep that blew up our door?" she explained, "His name was Chrysaor. He's the son of Medusa and Poseidon, and the father of Geryon, the three bodied cattle rancher. We killed his son a month ago."

A new thought occurred to me as she reminded me of Geryon. I frowned, all attention on Paul erased.

"If we killed Geryon a month ago," I asked, "why did Chrysaor suddenly come after us now?"

Annabeth looked at me with a grim expression. "Kronos is rounding up new lieutenants." she said as means of explanation. I paled. She nodded at my expression. "I know. It's gonna be a lot harder to win this war if there are monsters like Chrysaor leading the army."

My mom finally spoke up. "Do you think more will come after you?"

I shook my head at her tone. "I doubt it." I reassured her. "Chrysaor came to us for revenge. We haven't ticked off any other monsters lately." I noticed Annabeth's look, and then added as an afterthought, "At least, not _that_ many."

Annabeth held up her Ziploc bag, still grasped in her hand. "Do you have enough ambrosia in case something bad happens?"

I shook my head. "I'll restock when I get to Camp."

"That's too far away. You'll need some now."

"Are you _trying_ to say that I purposely get into situations like these?"

"Uh, guys?" My mom cut in nervously. We ignored her.

"No, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said sarcastically, "you just _happen_ to find yourself battling a monster wherever you go. Remember that time with The Hound?"

"Hey!" I complained, "He found me, not the other way around."

"Sure he did."

"I'm serious!"

"Uh huh."

"Come on!"

"Guys…" My mom tried again.

"You realize that if you'd try looking where you go, you might actually get somewhere without finding trouble."

"What are you talking about? You're a Daughter of Athena. It's easy for you to spot danger."

"What kind of excuse is that?"

"A true one!"

"Kids!" My mom exclaimed sharply. My head swiveled around to face her, surprised at her tone. Annabeth did the same. My mom took a deep breath, annoyance draining away to be replaced by amusement. She pointed at the ground besides her.

"I don't think Paul can take any more surprises today."

I followed her finger down to a crumpled heap on the ground. It took me a second to realize what it was.

"Wow…" Annabeth said, surprised. I chuckled once, unable to summarize it better than that.

"Paul…he…" I tried saying with a straight face. Failed miserably.

"He…"

"Did he really…?"

"I think so…"

Paul, my high school English teacher and mortal stepfather, had fainted.

**Epilogue:**

I was in my room, alone in the house for a moment. The final plans for the attack on _Princess Andromeda_ (the ship) had been laid out in front of me, ready for a final check.

"Are you okay, Percy?" Annabeth said from above me.

I looked up at the Iris Message of her, staring at me with an intense expression. My gut tensed as I realized what she meant. If I messed up, then I would be putting noting only myself, but other campers at risk. Months of preparation would have been done for nothing. Campers would lose any chance of defeating the Titan army. Even so, I couldn't resist taking a jibe at her. "Do I detect some concern for my well being?" I asked wryly.

She rolled her eyes. "Screw this up, and I'll personally go down into the Underworld to kill you again."

I shrugged, unperturbed. "I would be surprised if you didn't."

The minutes faded into a tense silence again as we both searched the plan, looking for any chink of problem there could be. With all the risks we were taking, there were bound to be some.

Finally, Annabeth huffed impatiently. Obviously trying to make small talk, she asked, "So, what did Paul do when he woke up?"

It took me less than a minute to understand what she was talking about. I shrugged, silently grinning to myself as the memories poured in. "I think he thought it all was a dream."

Annabeth above me chuckled, unsurprised. "And what did you say?" she asked.

I turned around to face her, a big grin plastered on my face. "Well…" I started.

Annabeth tried to smack me through the Iris Message, almost disbanding the signal as her hand faded to mist the moment it touched my skin. "Percy!" she chastised. "Tell me that you told him the truth."

I backed away indignantly. "Watch it!" I complained. And then I continued. "Calm down, Wise Girl. I _did_ repeat everything I'd said earlier. He just still didn't believe me."

Annabeth visibly relaxed, settling down in whatever she was sitting in behind her. I rolled my eyes.

"You think he'll be ready for the war?" she said grimly after an awkward moment of silence. I hesitated, and then shook my head.

"Doubt it."

The silence dragged on again, both of us unable to find the right thing to say. Finally, after looking over the plans again, fiddling with my shirt, biting my lip, and flicking a stray piece of paper besides me, I came up with something.

"You know what I can't wait for, though?" I said wryly. Annabeth started from the interruption in the silence. After a surprised moment, she asked.

"What?"

I turned to face her once more, another grin on my face. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, trying to mimic a person at ease. Impatiently, Annabeth asked again.

"What can't you wait for?"

My smile widened even more. "If we win this war, do you think he'll give me less homework?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, and promptly refrained from answering, lapsing back into silence. I continued indignantly.

"I mean, come on! We would have saved the world! That has to count for something, right?"

To my surprise, when Annabeth turned to look at me again, her face was serious. "If we lose, Percy," she said severely, "There won't even be a _world_ to have homework from." She shook her head. "Just make sure we win, and then we'll see."

I lapsed back into silence, troubled. Finally, unable to face the tense feeling I suddenly had in my gut, I said one last thing.

"But wait until he sees what I can do with water."

"Percy…"

"I'm reviewing! I'm reviewing!"

"You'd better be."

A second of silence, and then…

"…at least he's not trying to send me to that dyslexia camp anymore…"

"_Di immortales!"_

**Gasp…gasp…gasp…finally finished**

**I actually searched up a list of Greek monsters, and Chrysaor was just one of the many interesting ones I found. One small variation I made, however, was the fact that he looked half man, half boar, and half giant.  
That's NOT TECHNICALLY TRUE.  
In some myths, they say Chrysaor is a giant. Others say he is a boar with wings. Others say he's just a man. I decided to combine all of them together and make him a villain out to seek revenge on his son (which, by the way, IS **_**the**_** Geryon from **_**The Battle of the Labyrinth**_**). Everything else, like the golden armor, being born from Medusa's blood, is true. I'm not too sure about the spear though…**

**One other thing. I realized when I finished writing that I had written Paul as the sort of guy who faints when encountering something way out of his league. Based on the books, however, I found him to be a pretty cool guy. So, for the people out there who are annoyed at my mild misstep, please pardon my mistake.**

**I've been writing a lot of Paul stories lately, haven't I?  
**

**Yes, I was also kinda hoping Percy would get to show off his awesome water powers. Alas, that's not how the story turned out…**

**Thank you!  
**


	10. Sally, Meet Susan

**Hey! I'm back!** **Had to drag myself away from my stupid online summer class (I'm trying to learn ahead for this fall and not fail the class) and being ridiculously lazy for three weeks of summer break and finally do some writing.**  
**Anyways...**  
**So in my previous fic, I had a lot of reviews asking if that was the last one of this series. I can assure you that it's not. **  
**And anyways, I decided to make things a little new, and ended up posting a story that I'd written some time ago, but never got around to editing it. The particular fic actually is written in Sally Jackson's point of view, and her meeting with a certain person as Percy is off preparing for the final battle with the Titans. I'd been debating between posting this as a fic for this series, or a one-shot on it's own. My concience made me choose this one. **  
**I've been writing a lot of _Pre-The Last Olympian_ fics haven't I?**

**Enjoy!**

Sally Jackson was, by far, not your average mother.

Not many parents in the world could say that their child was of Greek god decent, fully equipped with the power to control an entire ocean, erupt a volcano, or defeat a fully grown monster with simply his sword and his wits. Even less could claim that their so-called delinquent son was a child of the Great Prophecy, destined to save the world from forces of evil so dark that _evil_ couldn't come close to describing it.

But Sally Jackson wasn't one to brag. She was happy with just having her son to herself. Alive and whole.

For the moment, at least.

Sally's mind was drifting idly in space, subconsciously lingering on the previous session with her writing mentor, Paul Blofis, as she was driving down the streets of Manhattan. Her eyes barely took in the familiar city of New York, the famous skyline in the distance, the bustling cars, taxis and motorists. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice when Percy subtly cleared his throat. She did, however, notice when Percy finally spoke up.

"Uh, mom. Are you okay?"

Sally's thoughts jerked violently back to reality as she realized she was mere inches away from swerving off the road and into the East River. Immediately, she wrenched the wheel back to the left, ignoring the surprised "Whoa!" as Percy tried valiantly not to slam his head against the window.

"Sorry." Sally winced as Percy rubbed his head. He was just about to go into battle with the most powerful Titan of all time, and she could have possibly made the battle a little bit harder for him by simply not paying attention to the road.

"Don't sweat it." he said, breathless. Catching her expression, he added jokingly. "I just didn't want to let the Great Prophecy down by being, you know, a pile of demigod road kill."

Sally laughed hysterically, suddenly unable to face the fact that her child might not make it until the end of the summer, road kill or not.

After another funny look from Percy and then finally managing to calm herself, she grudgingly realized that she had taken the alternative to stressing: holding her breath. Because as she turned into a deserted road by the East River, it all came out in a huge huff.

"Tell me what you're gonna do again?" she said through clenched teeth, fighting desperately against the torrent of emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

Percy glanced questioningly at his mom, catching the sudden change in her voice. "Um…" he trailed off. "Warn any surviving marine animal about the war, and try to get a few on our side?" He spoke it more like a question than a statement. And it really didn't help with Sally's nerves.

She stared at the mucky water, suddenly doubtful of her son's abilities. The river almost seemed to be _growing_ trash, leaving it in slimy piles everywhere it touched.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay down there?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Mom," he protested as the car slowly came to a stop at a deserted construction site directly behind the river. "You should have seen the Hudson. It was almost as bad as this."

And then, without waiting for a reply, he hopped out of the car. Sally hurriedly followed him, determined to see her son off to the water.

He grinned as he turned back to look at his mom. "See you back at the other side." he joked. And then, before Sally could say anything, he dove in to the murky water just as any other child would in an average, community swimming pool. Sally stared at the ripples on the surface of the water, eyes desperately searching for any sign of distress from her demigod son, any sign of trouble.

Even as he didn't resurface, it didn't reassure her too much.

Sally sighed. She knew that it was almost time for her session with Paul; at this rate she'd even be late. But for the moment, she wanted to take a break, to be by herself for a little while.

"Did your son just jump in the water?"

Or not.

Sally started. She hadn't realized that she'd been crept up on. Whirling around, she saw a small Asian woman walking up to her, one hand held up in apology as the other gripped a small cell phone.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." the woman confessed. "But I could have sworn that somebody just jumped in there."

Sally glanced at the water, praying to Poseidon that Percy wouldn't come back up and shock both her and the other woman. He didn't. "I don't think anybody would want to take a nosedive in _there_." she lied hesitantly. The Asian woman smiled.

"Well, that's a relief." she sighed, putting her phone back in her pocket. "I was having a bad enough day as it is."

Sally nodded absentmindedly. If there was one thing she could truly relate to, it was having bad days. Especially since it was to a demigod hero named Percy Jackson.

"What happened?" Sally asked, debating the chances of her making it back to her seminar before her son came home. Highly unlikely at the moment.

The Asian woman sighed again. "It's my stepdaughter. She's run away again."

Sally stared at the woman, startled at the word _again_. The asian woman continued, unperturbed. "I mean, it's not like she actually _ran away_. She just left a short voicemail that said she had to help out some friends at this place she goes to a lot."

The woman shuffled her feet as Sally politely looked away, still unsure how to react. It took her a while before she realized she wasn't the only one staring at the water, both of them holding the look that begged for their children to come home. In one piece.

"I've wronged her so many times, though; I wouldn't be surprised if she really hated me."

Sally stared out into the distance, unsure how to respond. It wasn't like Percy ran away from home…exactly. He just had a lot of responsibilities on his hands, what with being such a powerful demigod and all.

"So I came here to see if she was okay." the asian woman continued, breaking the silence and ignoring Sally's silence, "And she said that I shouldn't be here, that I wasn't safe."

The woman turned to look at Sally queerly. "Don't you think it's strange for _my child_ to tell me that?" she half demanded, her voice rising a few degrees. "I'd always thought it was the other way around, that _I'd_ warn her of the dangers in life. Not her… not now…" her voice drifted off into the murky distance again.

Sally finally found the right words to say as she slowly shook her head. "I don't think its weird." She quietly reminisced on all the times Percy had warned her of monsters, of Kronos, and of the war. "Our children our… different. In a good way." And then, she added good-humouredly, "And we don't have to worry about them growing up. In a way, they already have."

The woman bit her lip, mulled over the fact that Sally had talked about their kids as _our_ instead of _your_. She decided to ignore it.

"I guess you're right…"

Their meager conversation drifted off into silence as both mothers pondered over their own problems.

Sally found herself staring at the river again, playing back all the times Poseidon had ever visited her, had said that he loved her. The image of Poseidon soon morphed into Percy, and all the times he'd ever warned her of anything, or gone out of the way to protect her. She sighed forlornly.

"But there is one thing I know I don't have to worry about." the Asian woman started again suddenly. Sally glanced questioningly at her. The woman smiled.

"There's a boy." The woman sighed. "My daughter won't admit it, but I see it in her eyes whenever she talks about him. It's like… best friends, quite possibly even something more than that. But something totally against her nature. So she would _never_ talk about it. Her feelings I mean."

Sally smiled back. "That's the same with my son." she said. "There's a girl he sometimes can't even stop talking about. But whenever I start with him about her, he closes me off. Embarrassment, maybe?"

The Asian woman chuckled. "Most likely…" And then she stopped talking, lost in her thoughts as she stared off into the distance.

Sally glanced at her for a few more seconds, and then awkwardly turned to look back at the water. Clearing her throat, she finally said, "I should probably be going home."

The Asian woman blinked, and then turned to look at her again. "I should probably as well." She half shrugged. "Fredrick would have burned the house down by now. I've never left him home alone, all by himself and his toys, for this long."

Sally grinned. "Fredrick's your son?"

The Asian woman groaned. Laughing, she shook her head. "Oh, no. Fredrick's my _husband_."

Sally's eyes widened, and she blushed furiously "Oh…" she said quietly, and coughed a chuckle. The Asian woman smiled.

Holding out her hand, she said, "Well, it was nice talking to you." she said cheerfully. Sally didn't hesitate, grasping her hand and responding just as lightly.

"Likewise."

Suddenly, as an afterthought, she decided on adding one last thing.

"My name's Sally." she said. "Sally Jackson."

The Asian woman smiled, and then nodded. "I'm Susan. Susan Chase."

**In all honesty, I have no idea if Susan is the name of Annabeth's mom. I had thought it was when I started writing, therefore naming her that before I did a little research and found that she remained nameless. So if Rick Riordan decides to name her anything else (say...Eloise, or something) I promise I'll go right back in and change it. **

**Anyways, please review! I LOVE everything that you guys tell me, whether it's criticism or a complement. After all, I'm only a amateur. I don't exactly have everything I need to get payed the big bucks... though I do hope that I can change that someday.**


	11. Annabeth's Promise

**Hey everybody! I'm back! I hope you guys don't hate me too much *ducks in fear of tomatoes***

**I am sorry. I am **_**truly**_** sorry that I haven't updated this fic for so long. If I didn't know better, I would say that school is actually hard now, my schedule feels like it's trying desperately to prevent me from writing, and that I'd forgotten all about my library of unfinished fics. But nobody wants to hear that! **

**I hope you enjoy this fic anyways, despite the time it took me to post it.**

**One word of warning before I unlock the gates and let you read. **_**I still have not read the newly released Son Of Neptune that Mr. Rick Riordan has so generously decided to publish.**_** So if this does not fit in with the new plot of S.O.N., it's my fault and my fault entirely.**

**I also added one or two hints of the earthquake and Hurricane Irene that'd happened this summer, as they were the main reason I even started this story. Try to find them if you can **

"Jason! We could use a little help here with the storm spirits!"

"There's too many! I'm holding them off the best that I can!"

"Leo! Do you have any tools that could help us – look out!"

A huge explosion rocked the camp, cutting off what the demigod was about to say with a violent _ZZZZZZAP!_ of lightning. Annabeth heard the resulting cry in accordance to the bolt, but she was too busy fighting off the enemy _anemoi thuellai_ to even check to see if it came from their side or the enemy.

"Piper, we need help with the harpies!"

"Jason! Please, man, there's too many!"

"Annabeth, Chiron's hurt!"

The last comment immediately caught Annabeth's attention. Without even bothering to glance at the opposing storm spirits, she sunk her blade into one, and then the other, not feeling any satisfaction for managing to catch them at the right time as they both howled in pain, essence dissolving as they were sent back to the atmosphere. Before the deaths could even register, she was already halfway across the battlefield, dagger out and ready to defend with a shield held up high in front of her, slashing and cutting at whatever was in her way. She managed to make it to Chiron unscathed, with only one final _anemoi_ to destroy before she finally reached her mentor.

"Chiron, are you alright?" she said urgently, taking in the sight of Chiron on the ground, legs folded beneath him as a boy from the Apollo sat beside him pulling out different supplies and ointments that Annabeth couldn't even name.

"I'm fine dear." he said tiredly. "Only a flesh wound, you needn't have to worry about me."

Annabeth hurried to his side anyway, eyes taking in the large gash he had right between his forearm – er, leg – and flank, to the packet of bandages that the child of Apollo (Andy, she remembered) had out and was ready to apply. She immediately grabbed another packet herself and opened it hurriedly, pulling out the spotless white gauze and prepared to apply it to his injury.

"If only Percy were here." Chiron sighed besides her as he watched the battle rage on in front of him, wincing as he watched a camper get thrown across the clearing by the winds the _anemoi_ were churning up. "I have to admit that I really miss that boy."

Annabeth nodded tersely, not taking her eyes off the bandage as she replied, "Yeah, another child of the Big Three would be really helpful. Nico and Jason and Thalia may not be enough."

Chiron was quiet besides her for a long moment, his eyes holding a faraway look as both Annabeth and Andy of the Apollo cabin hastily applied ointment and bandages to Chiron's side. It was only after they were done and Andy had run off did Chiron finally point out, "I'm sure that's not the only reason you miss him right now, isn't it?"

Annabeth's head snapped up. "What?"

With obvious difficulty, Chiron unsteadily rose from the ground, brushing away Annabeth when she tried to help him as he continued, "Annabeth, there are many demigods in camp who wish Percy hadn't been taken, but you're the only one here who truly misses him." His eyes grew soft as Annabeth blushed beneath his gaze. "It's understandable."

Annabeth was quiet for a moment, her hands reaching for her knife and shield on the ground before she finally admitted, softly, "I just hope he still remembers me."

Chiron's mouth turned up a little at the corners, and he rested a reassuring hand on her shoulders. "I'm sure, with his head, there wouldn't have been a lot of information for him to forget in the first place."

Annabeth chuckled at the jibe at Percy's nickname _Seaweed Brain_, but then she looked away as a sudden pang in her gut wiped away her smile. She shrugged Chiron's hand off her shoulder before saying tersely, "I need to help my siblings, Chiron."

The twinkle in his eyes faded away as his face turned grave once more, and he nodded. "Go." he said.

Running toward the midst of the fighting, Annabeth grimily cursed the gods for allowing the battle to happen. The followers of Gaea weren't pleased when Khione fell, and they immediately responded with a resulting army of earthpeople and other creepy crawly monsters that she'd only heard of through the pages of the books she'd read. The demigods of Half Blood had no problems fending off the armies of monsters for a while, but they were beginning tiring out from the constant skirmishes the Gaea followers were sending. Only last week, demigods near Mineral, Virginia had gotten sloppy and set off an huge explosion, immediately startling mortals and forcing the campers there to make a quick retreat despite the Mist. While the people there wrote off the explosion as an earthquake, she knew that at this rate, the campers would be too tired out to prevent anymore attacks from happening. It would be like when Thalia's tree was poisoned all over again, with everybody on high alert and camp being more of a battle ground than a kids sanctuary. She shook her head in disgust.

Nico ran up besides her just as she was about to launch herself in the middle of the fight. "What is this?" he said indignantly, "Like, the _third_ battle in less than two weeks?" He shook his head. "It almost makes you wish for the whole Kronos thing all over again. At least he limited his major fights to one."

Annabeth snorted, the sardonic humor a welcome relief to a long day of nonstop battles and fighting. There had been no casualties yet that she'd heard of ever since the Gaea followers had sent the monsters, but at this rate, something major was going to _have_ to happen. Two weeks ago the constant skirmishes had convinced all the different cabins to pitch in, and only a few days ago a Hecate camper nearly died from a head injury from the storm spirits. This wasn't even close to their previous battle with Kronos, but it was still memorable in its own way.

A bloodcurdling scream cut through her train of thought just as she prepared herself to enter battle once more. Annabeth and Nico swiveled around in unison, both ready to defend whoever was in trouble, but instead saw a group of campers huddled together, staring into the distance in shock. The daughter of Athena and the son of Hades were besides them in seconds.

"What's going on?" Annabeth had to yell to be heard over the battle around them. "What happened?"

Clarisse tore his eyes away from her vantage point and fixed Annabeth with a stunned stare. "I think…" she said in disbelief. "I thought…"

A younger camper, who hadn't yet been claimed, wasn't nearly as tongue tied. "Oh my gods." he said excitedly. Grasping Annabeth's and Nico's hands in his little ones, he cheered out happily, "Percy's here! Percy's here!"

Annabeth's face immediately turned from anxious to stone hard. The younger camper let go of her hand, confused from her sudden change in expression. Nico stared wide eyed into the distance, searching for any sign of his missing friend.

"Are you sure?" he said with uncertainty. "I don't see Per – him anymore."

Annabeth was still silent as the younger camper fixed him with a grin. "Of course! It was him! I swear to the River Styx that he was there. I think he was doing something with the weather."

As if that flicked a switch inside her, Annabeth's face immediately looked up. The clouds above were swirling and angry, but they didn't seem as if any more storm spirits would be raining down on any of them. Everybody around her breathed a sigh of relief. The battle was over. But Annabeth wasn't nearly as relieved.

"He's not there." she said bluntly, her voice emotionless as she looked back down at the campers, her face immediately falling in disappointment. "He never was."

The young camper opened his mouth to protest. "He was!"he insisted. "I saw him! I swore on the River Styx that I saw him!"

"Tyler, shut up." Clarisse said quietly, her voice rough but not harsh. She placed a hand on Annabeth's shoulder while throwing a quick glare to the camper. "Even if it was him, he's not here anymore."

All the campers gathered around them shared similar masks of disappointment, only marred by the silent relief they all felt that the battle was over. Muttering amongst each other, they all turned around and walked away to assess their own cabin, not a single topic straying away from their mysterious sighting of Percy and what it could mean. Before long, only Annabeth, Nico, and Clarisse were left standing in their original spots, not taking any notice to the rest of the camp as they all pondered the possibility that Percy could have been _there_.

"Did you…actually… _see_ him?" Nico asked hesitantly as Annabeth simply stared at the ground again.

Clarisse's face scrunched up with indecision, but finally admitted, "Yeah, I think I might have."

"What was he doing?" Annabeth's quiet voice surprised both of the demigods, as she'd been quiet the entire time after she realized that Percy couldn't be there anymore. Her face was a blank mask again as she looked up. "Was he really affecting the weather?"

Clarisse nodded. "It looked like him, that's for sure. But if it was him, he was just standing there with this weird face, staring at the sky like he was doing something to it." She let out a deep sigh. "Even if it were him…I figured he would be at the Roman camp."

Nico nodded. "Jason never had a chance to go back to his old camp, let alone stay at this one for so long. How would Percy be able to come here?"

None of them knew how to answer that. Annabeth could feel herself sinking again, the last ditch flutter of hope she'd tried not to let grow wilting once more, leaving dead bits of it inside her reminding her of the fact that Percy still wasn't there. She remained silent even as she trudged toward the battle scarred camp, her eyes never leaving the ground even as handfuls of her friends gathered around her and spoke words of comfort she'd already heard before.

"It's okay, Annabeth. You'll find him as soon as we finish making the ship."

"I'm sure that it wasn't a coincidence. Percy must not have forgotten everything."

"Annabeth, don't worry. We'll find him."

Annabeth shook off her friends politely, choosing to walk alone toward her cabin to wash off the dirt and goo that'd accumulated on her armor during the fight. The way there, she spotted the group of three demigods that'd come to camp when the whole mess with Gaea had started.

Piper was attempting to clean her dagger, the task made more difficult by the fact that Leo kept pulling random things out of his tool belt and distracting her. The sound of her laughter wafted through the camp, almost making the burden of battle a little lighter and the day seem a little less dark. Annabeth knew that it was mostly Piper's Aphrodite magic causing her to have her affect, but in this case, a little happiness wasn't unwelcomed to the camp. Jason was sitting beside her, nursing a wound he'd received on his arm as he kept sending quick, discreet glances at Piper that Annabeth couldn't help but remind her of Percy.

Percy. The little, dead flower of hope inside her almost seemed to grown thorns as she was painfully reminded of her failure to bring him home. The image of Leo, Piper, and Jason so happy together, with the unbreakable bond of familiarity and companionship that she and Percy had once had dug the thorns deeper into her being, and she swiftly turned away, the sight of them unbearable now.

Without a further comment, she opened to door of the Athena cabin, paying no mind to the disheveled appearance of her home and immediately beginning to find a task that wouldn't remind her of Percy. She berated herself for stupidly let herself grow the seed of hope when Chiron had mentioned the MIA Son of Poseidon, and now she was paying the price for it.

A picture of her and Percy together caught her eye by the side of her bed. Without a second thought, she immediately crumpled it up and threw it angrily out the window. Forget about the Romans and their camp. Why did they even have to exist anyways? Why did they have to have such a conflict with the Greeks, so bad that even the gods were cowering in fear?

Why did Hera have to take her stupid, seaweed brained Son of Poseidon to exchange him with Jason? Why did Percy have to show up_ today_, of all times, during a battle, instead of like most other, _normal _boys who would probably arrive dramatically on a sunny day with a bunch of flowers, some cheesy background music playing as he and girlfriend embraced in slow motion and everything in the world would be alright again?

Annabeth's mind buzzed tiredly as she suddenly realized that she was too exhausted to ask why anymore. Percy was gone, and there was no logical reason as to why he could have shown up today. She figured that even if she'd actually seen him with her own eyes, he still wouldn't remember her, and she still would have been just as crushed as she was right now. Still dressed in her battle armor, she leaned against the wall of her bunk as she finally allowed her mind to drift off, and let her eyes slowly drift shut, the image of Percy slowly fading away as she drifted into the quiet, peaceful realm of unconsciousness.

She would see him some other time, she promised herself before she truly fell asleep. And next time, before Percy could let her down again with his amnesia and Roman camp and the overall stupid problems of the Greek and Roman world, she would be more prepared. She'd promised herself that.

**I am desperately trying to stop myself from going on Wikipedia right now and searching up the full story summary of The Son Of Neptune right now. Mainly because I really want to see what I wrote that doesn't coincide with Rick Riordan's story, and then fix them immediately. The agony of it is killing me!**

**Don't be afraid to flame me. I really do want to know your opinion on this fic, as it had presented me with a difficult dilemma of whether or not I should even post it. But if you have any nice comments, please don't hesitate in telling me those either! *Cheeky grin* **

**I was a little miffed about making Annabeth cry in my fic where she meets Percy, as she doesn't seem like the kind of girl who would burst into tears quite often. So I ended up trying to spin a tougher version of her, one who doesn't let her emotions overwhelm her. Feel free to tell me if I did a good job of it or not. **

**All in all, I hope you enjoyed this.**

**~Emma**


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